Canadian Poker TV Goes Online with MoboVivo and HeadsUp Entertainment

Canadian poker fans will soon be able to catch up to the game and watch full programs streaming over the Internet or Buy & Sync the programs so they can watch anytime, anywhere they like even without an Internet connection, thanks to a collaboration just announced by iPhone entertainment heavyweight MoboVivo and HeadsUp Entertainment.

All 13 episodes of Canadian Championship Poker season will be available from the MoboVivo website.

Episodes of Canadian Poker Tour will also be made available following HeadsUp Entertainment’s acquisition of the Canadian Poker Tour and its TV shows last week. These announcements will make HeadsUp the top producer of poker television programming in Canada and MoboVivo the top provider of poker TV shows online.

Poker in Canada is hot and tournaments like the Canadian Championship Poker and the Canadian Poker Tour features great players like Brad Booth, Huck Seed and stars like Jennifer Tilly, said Kelly Kellner, CEO of HeadsUp Entertainment. Now their fans can watch them anytime and anywhere thanks to MoboVivo’s online video platform.

MoboVivo customers have been asking for programming like this, said Trevor Doerksen, CEO of MoboVivo. They want to take it with them, watch it online and catch up to TV shows they missed or watch without commercials.

MoboVivo is the first company to offer paid downloads of TV shows in Canada. It is also one of the first companies in the world to offer services to iPhone users. The new buy & sync program bridges the gap between a portable device like an iPhone or iPod and the user’s computer.

Poker champ donates winnings

Earlier this month, Carl Spetzler, executive director of the Palo Alto educational nonprofit the Decision Education Foundation, invited board member Eric Brooks over to dinner.

“He said ‘Sorry, I can’t make it, I’m playing in a poker tournament. … If I do well, you won’t regret it,’” Spetzler said.

Indeed, after winning the 2008 World Championship of Poker’s seven-card stud event, Brooks donated his entire $415,856 purse to the Decision Education Foundation, the nonprofit announced this week.

Brooks, co-founder of the Philadelphia-based global financial firm Susquehanna International Group, said in an e-mail Tuesday that he decided before the Las Vegas tournament to donate his winnings to the foundation, which works with youth groups, develops classroom materials and trains educators to teach students how to make intelligent life choices.

“While it may sound fantastic to some, I believe in my lifetime children will move from math class to history to decision-making class as part of the normal curriculum in schools around the country,” said Brooks, who has been on the nonprofit’s board of directors since 2004.

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Online poker cheating demonstrates insider risk

Poker cheats are using insider knowledge to gain competitive advantage.

When determining the risk to a system and the data stored on it, insider threats are generally regarded as lower risk. Despite the complete access (high risk) that insiders generally have, most of the time insiders are trusted agents (very low risk) on the network. When it breaks down, it can break down in a catastrophic manner, especially if there is money at stake.

One such incident took place in the middle of last year when one or more individuals with trusted access to the systems of UltimateBet and Absolute Poker used that access to create several fake usernames and used them to make an undisclosed amount of money off online poker players. While creating the fake player accounts may not necessarily be cheating, it was the use of software that allowed the insiders to view the competing players’ hole cards which was.

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Poker Pros Get Out the Vote

With the 2008 US presidential election fast approaching, thousands of special-interest groups are descending on Washington, DC, to make their voices heard on issues such as gun control, abortion and foreign policy. Now poker players are the latest lobby group to target the Capitol, with a Poker Players Alliance campaign circulating on the internet.

The PPA’s campaign is headlined by a website carrying the very election-themed name of Poker 2008. The website includes a video, featuring poker professionals such as Mike Sexton, Annie Duke, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch, and Jennifer Harman, in which they urge poker players to register to vote.

The video begins with the message “the PPA recognizes that political power comes in voters.” It then features short clips of the various professionals, with catchy quotes like “politicians care about poker because their constituents care about poker.”

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Comments (0) Jun 18 2008

Two World Series of Poker Tickets Up For Grabs in Titan Poker VIP Race

Leading online poker room, Titan Poker, will stage a week-long competition for its top players with a $50,000 prize pool, including two top prizes of $14,000 packages to the World Series of Poker Main Event 2008.

Titan Poker is opening up yet another opportunity this June for its elite, VIP players to partake extra benefits. By participating in Titan Poker’s $50,000 VIP Race, which runs from 5th to the 11th of June, the players aren’t only competing for a share of an enormous prize pool, but also for seats at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), this July in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Two “all-exclusive” WSOP packages will be awarded to the top two players in this extraordinary race. The $14,000 packages include a $10,000 buy-in to the Main Event, hotel accommodations and travel expenses. The next 98 top finishers in the $50,000 VIP Race take their share of a lavish cash prize pool of $22,000.

The winners of the Titan Poker VIP Race will join other Titan Poker players who have already won their Las Vegas trips at Titan Poker’s WSOP 2008 Main Event Super Satellite Series, Side Event Super Satellite Series and the elite Executive Satellite Series.

All of Titan Poker’s VIP players are positioned on an equal playing field with a chance to win part of the huge prize pool in the race. Players will be ranked according to a unique Race Points system which will calculate an average of a player’s activity at cash games. Players can regularly check Titan Poker’s leaderboard (which is automatically updated every thirty minutes) to see their position in the standings.

KC man wins $830,000 pot at regional poker tourney

A Kansas City businessman sits atop the leaderboard at the World Series of Poker.

Early Wednesday morning at the Rio in Las Vegas, Grant Hinkle, who will turn 28 on Saturday, caught a full house and parlayed his $1,500 seat in the tournament to $831,462 in prize money in a regional World Series tournament.

“My wife and I had been looking at buying a new house the last couple of years,” he said. “This will definitely help.”

The self-described “marketing guy” at Archer Technologies in Kansas City now sits at the top of the World Series money-winnings leaderboard for 2008 and ranks 277th in the series’ all-time Power Ranking.

And he’s not the only family member with World Series credentials. Brother Blair Hinkle is ranked 439th.

Grant Hinkle, a Topeka native, graduated from the University of Kansas with a business degree.

He said this was his second entry in a World Series of Poker event, but the first time he made it to a final table.

Grant Hinkle said the grueling three-day game that wrapped up Wednesday morning is scheduled to be televised July 29 by ESPN.

By then, he said, he plans to have invested $10,000 of his winnings in a seat at the World Series finals, which are to be played in July and televised later this year.

Blair Hinkle earlier this year finished 11th at the Los Angeles Poker Classic and brought home $62,000 for that. He finished 520th in the WSOP main event last year.

Grant said his regular poker game is with a few friends in the Kansas City area or at area casino poker rooms. He said most of his home poker games are for buy-ins of $40 or $50.

Grant said his brother offered some pretty good advice for his winning play in Wednesday’s last hand.

Holding a 10 and a 4, he went all in on a bluff. The cards that turned up: 10-10-4-4-5.

Game over.

US Friendly Poker Rooms- US Legal Poker

Many US poker players have found it difficult to play online poker since the UIGEA(Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) was passed in 2006. There are still misconceptions about the legality and access to online poker. According to legal experts who have reviewed and interpreted the law, playing online poker is in fact legal in the US. The UIGEA was designed to make depositing onto US online poker rooms extremely difficult, it does not make any act of the playing poker or depositing illegal. It should be stressed that this law does not address players or prohibit any form of online poker. The main target of this law was aimed at financial institutions, where it makes specific regulations against banks knowingly facilitating transactions onto gambling sites of any kind. It also prohibits any site that is under the jurisdiction of US law from accepting deposits from US players. This is why all of these sites are located and operated offshore.

This law has no doubt made deposing more difficult, but not impossible. There are plenty of us poker deposit options for online poker available today. The easiest of which are Poker Echecks, which are similar to paper check and carry many of the same protections of paper checks, the main difference is they are electronic. According to reviews they are easy, fast and safe to use. You simply need your account information, including your account and routing number, which can be found on your check. Once this information is entered and submitted along with the amount you wish to deposit, your funds will immediately be available for play.

Absolute Poker Introduces Instant Deal Making at Final Tables

Absolute Poker has announced a new final table feature that promises to expedite the deal making process at select online poker games.

“We’re making it easier for players to facilitate deals so that everyone can walk away from a big tournament with a healthy win,” stated David Clainer, Senior Vice President for Absolute Poker.

The new Deal Making button will automatically appear once a game reaches the final poker table. The process will begin only once all remaining poker players have agreed to make a deal. The game will then pause and the tournament manager will join the chat to monitor the players as a deal is discussed and provide helpful information on chip equity.

If an agreement is reached, the pot will be divided in accordance with the agreed terms. If no agreement is reached, the game will continue.

Clainer notes that by the time a poker tournament gets to the final table, the game often turns into a coin toss as players go all-in for a shot at winning the pot. Deal making enables the players to split the pot and avoid leaving a potential big win or loss to chance.

The Deal Making feature is available at select poker tournaments as indicated in the lobby of the Absolute Poker software. Full details can be found at www.absolutepoker.com.

Full Tilt Poker Pro Erick Lindgren Captures His First Ever World Series of Poker Title

Erick Lindgren overcame an extremely stacked 332 player field to capture his first World Series of Poker bracelet on early Thursday morning in the $5k Mixed Hold’em event. Lindgren overcame Justin “Zeejustin” Bonomo in heads-up play to take down the first place prize of $374,505, plus the coveted World Series of Poker bracelet. This was Lindgren’s first ever World Series of Poker bracelet.

The final table of the event was a great mix of experience and youth. As mentioned, Lindgren and Bonomo finished first and second. The final table also included the following names: Roland de Wolfe, Howard Lederer, David Williams and Isaac Haxton. This was an extremely strong final table (and event, for that matter), and Lindgren’s victory was well-earned.

Lindgren’s lack of a World Series of Poker bracelet must have been frustrating to him, especially given his ultra-competitive nature. He has come agonizingly close before (second place finish in the 2006 $5k Short-Handed No Limit Hold’em event), but was never able to seal the deal. Prior to this event, Lindgren had already had a phenomenal career which included $5.96 million in total lifetime cashes and two WPT titles, but no WSOP bracelet.

For Justin “Zeejustin” Bonomo, this was yet another deep run in a major tournament without a win. As we’ve said before, you have to figure that it is just a matter of time before he takes one down.

The final hand of the tournament came when Lindgren raised pre-flop and Bonomo called. They saw a flop of 10-5-3 with two clubs. Both players checked, and the turn card was the 4 of hearts. “Zeejustin” bet 80,000, and Lindgren called. The river was the eight of hearts. Bonomo bet again, Lindgren raised, and Bonomo called, putting himself all-in.

Lindgren turned up A-2 for a straight, while Bonomo showed 5-4 for two pair.

“Zeejustin” received $230,159 for his second place finish. This was Bonomo’s second trip to a WSOP final table - he finished in fourth place in a $2k No Limit Hold’em event in 2007 for $156k.

With this victory, Erick Lindgren will move up to 20th on the all-time money list, one behind Johnny Chan.

WSOP debuts ‘green’ poker table

This year’s World Series of Poker - the highlight of the poker calendar - will feature green tables of a different kind.

Executive Gaming Monthly (EGM) will be presenting their eco-friendly poker table, made of 98% sustainable products.

In an effort to introduce recycled and sustainable products into the gaming world, EGM aims to reduce waste and impact on ecosystems. Their specially designed green tables are made of wood certified by the Forestry stewardship Council and use only water-based adhesive.

As well as displaying their wares in the WSOP exhibition, the winner of the WSOP will take home their own ‘EGM green’ poker table.

EGM also makes environmentally friendly tables for roulette and baccarat, and green yet comfortable lounge furniture.

The WSOP will run throughout June and July, until the competition is whittled down to the last 9 players. These 9 will have to wait till November when they will sit down at the final table to compete for the top prize in poker.

Britain has gone Poker Crazy

Britain has gone poker crazy with one in four adults playing in the last year, a study revealed. One in 14 join a game every day and one in seven play at least once a week.

Experts say poker is seen as “cool” and gets 40 times the TV coverage it did five years ago. Consumer analyst Mintel which quizzed 4,000 Brits, found that live games between friends are as popular as online poker. Senior analyst Matt King said .. “The extra excitement and social side are important .. “ Talking about gambling .. Air travellers will soon be able to gamble during flights as airlines introduce on-board casinos. ? Passengers on long-haul journeys will be able to log on to the internet and stake cash on games including poker, blackjack and roulette.

But the decision has been widely criticised by the anti-gambling lobby. A spokesman for the charity Gamcare, which provides help to people suffering addictions, said: “Clearly these games will attract people sitting on a flight for hours on end who don’t normally bother with betting online. There is a real danger that people who don’t normally take an interest in gambling will be attracted to betting”

The casinos will be provided by the world’s biggest online gambling company 888.com which already rakes in £1.2 billion a year from Britons. Passengers will be able to use their in-flight TV screen to access the online casinos.

Team Full Tilt Announces newest member

Over the weekend Full Tilt Poker announced that cash game specialist Patrik Antonius signed on as the newest team member.

Comments (1) Jun 05 2008

German Player Wins European Championship Tournament at Titan Poker

Player “Heins77″ from Germany was the winner on Wednesday of the sixth tournament staged as part of Titan Poker’s ten-day European Championship of Online Poker (ECOOP) tournament series.

The ECOOP series is currently attracting unprecedented player interest at Titan Poker, the largest online poker room on the iPoker Network. A total of $3,600,000 is guaranteed in prizes at the ten tournaments, but the large number of online poker players participating in the tournaments has driven up the prize pools even higher.

Player “Heins77″ took home a first prize of $45,570 as he beat off 1,084 other players in the Texas Hold’em No Limit, 6-Player table tournament with a buy-in of $200+$15. A total of $217,000 was distributed to the winning players, more than the event’s guaranteed prize pool of $200,000.

The previous night, the fifth ECOOP II tournament saw 505 players compete at a Texas Hold’em No Limit Freezeout tournament with a stiff $750 + $50 Buy-in. The prize pool, at $378,750, again surpassed the promised amount.

The ECOOP II tournament series continues at Titan Poker until June 1st, when it culminates with a tournament finale with $1,500,000 in guaranteed prizes.

Titan Poker players are able to buy-in directly to each of the ECOOP II events or win their seats at online daily qualifying tournaments, which start at just $2 + $0.20.

This is the second European Championship of Online Poker staged by Titan Poker. The first ECOOP series was staged in December 2007 and exceeded expectations by awarding more than $2,500,000 in prizes.

Bettors go all-in on 2008 World Series of Poker

Poker betting is one thing but wagering on poker betting is quite another. And yet that’s the challenge gamblers will face when they match cash to conviction on the 39th World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, beginning May 30.

Although some books have prices for which poker players will win each of the 53 preliminary card games, it is Event #54, the $10,000 buy-in World Championship of No-Limit Texas Hold ‘em, known as the Main Event, that not only attracts the most poker players but the most action from bettors, as well.

That competition gets underway July 3 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel with the Final Table determined on July 14. The nine players who advance to the Final Table will return to the Rio on November 9 where the outcome will be decided on the evening of November 10.

Poker exploded as a TV and gambling essential a half-decade ago when new technology allowed viewers watching at home to see each player’s hole cards. Bookmakers, who tried to keep pace with the phenomena, have been swamped of late as the number of entries to the Main Event swelled to a record 8,773 in 2006. Try making a future book involving that many names!

So, given the huge fields and the fact that an established professional poker player has not won the Main Event since 2001, books have taken to offering prices on players merely making it to the Final Table. (Odds on winning the top prize will follow after that).

The lowest odds on any individual reaching the Final Table is 100/1, a price afforded to 1987 and 1988 Main Event champion Johnny Chan, 1989 winner Phil Hellmuth and 2001 champ Carlos Mortensen, as well as such highly regarded poker players a Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu and Allen Cunningham.

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More than $4,500 in monthly leaderboard prizes. Play Texas Hold’em DuplicatePoker.com

Saab wins RP leg of Asian Poker Tour

Australian national David Saab emerged as the top winner of the 2008 Asian Poker Tour as he bested more than 300 players in the finals of the six-day event Sunday at the Dusit Thani Manila Hotel in Makati City.

The 35-year-old became the last man standing at the “no limit Texas hold’em” after beating South Korea’s Chris Roh in six hours at the gambling table.

Saab already had 2.2 million worth of chips against Roh’s 800,000 before the winning the tour’s Philippine leg.

Saab, who started Sunday’s game as the chip leader, pocketed the $280,000 top prize. He was a former chief executive officer of a public company before turning pro full time.

Second placer Roh, who owns an online gaming room, took home $150,000.

Roh and Saab eliminated Japanese player Satoru Ishii to arrange their one-on-one match.

The 29-year-old Japanese, who works as a magazine writer, pocketed $100,000.

Filipinos reach the finals

Two Filipinos, meanwhile, made it into the finals before eventually bowing out of contention.

Terry Gonzaga and Don Carmona were eliminated from the competition after running out of chips to play.

Gonzaga, who works as a business manager of a semi-conductor outsource assembly plant, was the third to be eliminated among the top nine players who made it into the finals.

“Talagang matindi ang pressure,” said Gonzaga. He said that this was his first major tournament.

Carmona, who was cheered on by Filipino spectators, was the next to be eliminated.

“Magaling… magaling sila,” said Carmona, who is engaged in the customs brokerage business.

Other players who made it into the finals were Michele Ferrari (Italy), Yun Man (South Korea), Kwang Soo Lee (South Korea) and Gerasimos Deres (Sweden).

More than 300 players battled it out at the APT leg in Manila for a share of the guaranteed $1-million prize pot.

Meanwhile, APT CEO Chris Parker announced announced a US$1,500,000 guaranteed prize pool for its next event in Macau.

The Asian Poker Tour Macau will be held at the StarWorld Hotel and Casino from the 27th to 31st of August 2008 with the buy-in at $5,000+$300.

Another scandal rocks online poker

The Absolute Poker scandal mostly flew under the mainstream media’s radar last year, but as the old saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Maybe George W. Bush can’t get that cliche correct, but if he played online poker he would definitely understand it’s meaning right around now.

The news is now official as UltimateBet has admitted that it has suffered its own cheating scandal.

And this time, the mainstream press is noticing. Canada’s National Post newspaper is already on top of the story.

A media organization with an already conservative bent, on Saturday the Post published a stark story about the state of security inside the poker world, with an article titled Native policing of gambling in doubt after online cheating.

And while I’m generally loathe to agree with conservative views of online gambling, I’m having a hard time disagreeing with the premise of the article, which questions whether the Kahnawake reserve has the balls to properly regulate the gaming companies under its watch.

Right now, it looks like it doesn’t.

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World Series of Poker shows Vegas at its best

Las Vegas has been beset by weird, bad news this year. There’s the mortgage foreclosure crisis, plus a hepatitis outbreak. And you could drown away such troubles with a night on the town, but then you might deal with long lines at expensive, celebrity-owned nightclubs that are, alas, under investigation by the feds.

So it was a relief this weekend to see the focus of Vegas rooting into what it does best: poker. Specifically, taking people’s money away from them for their own good, or at least Las Vegas’ good.

The World Series of Poker was a magnet for many hundreds of action junkies from around the world. They chipped in up to $10,000 each to play the tables. A swarm of international media buzzed around them.

And some poker players and spectators did their part to help alleviate our housing crisis. Quite a few told me they just moved to Las Vegas within the past month, either to get closer to tournaments here, or to prey as poker pros on tourists in hotels.

The most prominent gaming duo was actress Jennifer Tilly and her poker champ boyfriend Phil Laak. They just moved here a few weeks ago. And they were hard to miss at the Rio, since he’s known as “The Unabomber” for hiding his poker face behind dark glasses and a hoodie. And she’s appropriately called “The Unabombshell.”

Tilly thinks “Unabombshell” is a cute alias, but she prefers another nickname she hears: J-Tilla the Killa.

“I think that strikes fear in the hearts of men,” she says. “‘Unabombshell’ sort of implies ‘decorative:’ someone you can have at the table so you can stare at her boobs.”

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Comments (0) Jun 02 2008

Player Receives $55,000 as Titan Poker Deals Its Billionth Hand

Titan Poker, the largest online poker room on the iPoker Network, dealt its Billionth Hand on May 27 and player “wootrigged” from Finland went home with a prize of $55,000. The other five players playing at the same table received $5,000 each, just for participating in hand number 1,000,000,000.

Titan Poker’s Billionth Hand promotion, which launched a number of weeks ago, awarded more than $420,000 in prizes. A countdown started when the 950,000,000th hand was dealt. Hundreds of dollars in cash were awarded to players every day as Titan Poker neared its monumental billionth hand.

Players were able to track the progress of the countdown to the Billionth Hand by logging into the Titan Poker software, or onto the Titan Poker website. Titan Poker players also received regular updates of the countdown progress and were immediately informed when they started to play on a winning hand.

Titan Poker regularly rewards its players with huge cash prizes. The popular online poker room is currently giving away $3,600,000 in its second European Championship of Online Poker (ECOOP II). It also frequently awards its players with seats at the world’s most well-known poker tournaments, including the 2008 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, the Irish Open, the European Poker Tour and the Asian Poker Tour. In May, Titan Poker sponsored the Eurocity Poker Tour Madrid Open, a highly successful tournament event staged at the Casino Gran outside the Spanish capital.

For World Series of Poker players, brain trumps hand

The real action at the World Series of Poker won’t be visible to the eye or even the hole-card cameras under the tables. It will take place inside the heads of the players.

They will mess with each other’s minds, watch for clues that might tip off another’s hand or a nervous bluff and calculate the risks and rewards of each hand. And before they move all-in with their chips, they will decide whether they have not only the cards but the nerve.

“A lot of time, it’s just a game of chicken. You don’t have very much. You think they don’t have very much. Each of you is just trying to make the other one fold,” says pro Barry Greenstein, who rates psychological toughness the No. 1 trait of a poker player.

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Poker: Picking the right time to gamble is important

Ideally, you want to get your money in the pot in a no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament when you have an opponent dominated, but that isn’t always possible.

Sometimes your stack will be below average, you will draw a nice hand, even if it isn’t the best, and you will see a big pot brewing. You have to gamble.

It happens to the top players all the time. They don’t always like it, but one part of their strategy is to pick a smaller stack to gamble with so they can’t bust out, as Josh Arieh showed at the $15,000-buy-in Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Las Vegas’ Bellagio in 2007.

With blinds at $500-$1,000 plus a $100 ante, the player under the gun limped, as did pro Marcel Luske and two other players.

Arieh, who finished third in the 2004 World Series of Poker main event, found ace-queen offsuit on the button. He also found a chance to make a move to improve his below-average stack of about $24,000.

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Ultimate Poker Challenge

Ultimate Poker Challenge is a syndicated show that televises a series of weekly poker tournaments where players accumulate points instead of money in order to play in the semi-finals. Eight players then go on to play in the finals. The playing field for ultimate poker challenge is comprised of both professional poker players and top amateurs.

Chad Brown, an actor most recognized for his work on the soap opera “Another World” hosted the show with Brandi Williams as field correspondent who often interviewed the players. Matt Savage was the tournament director. In the first season of Ultimate Poker Challenge, James Van Alstyne won the top prize of $100,000. In season 2, Andy Bloch, who is best known for being a member of the MIT blackjack team that was featured in the book, “Bringin Down The House,” which is also the subject of the 2008 movie, “21″ won the top prize of $167,500. The winner of the show’s season 3 was Amir Vahedi, who took home $181,390.

Seasons 1 and 2 of the exciting series are available on DVD for fans of the show to purchase. In season 4, the show was actually renamed to The Ultimate Poker Challenge Presents Cash Poker: The Ultimate Challenge. In 2007 ultimate poker challenge teamed up with Woman Poker Player magazine to create the Ultimate Women’s Poker Challenge. This event was held at Binions in Las Vegas and was televised for the show. Shows like these have really helped to popularize poker, especially when people at home see the “average Joe” take home the money. It gives the ordinary amateur hope that he or she has a chance at winning the big one someday. Also, by utilizing Henry Orenstein’s invention of the pocket camera, now that the home audience can see the player’s hole cards, it makes watching poker more exciting than ever!

Checkout the UltimateBet Weekly Online Poker Tournament Schedule:

Monday - Saturday: 8:00PM - Buy In $120+9 - $20K Nightly Bounty No Limit Tournaments
Sundays: 5:00PM - Buy In $120+9 or Qualify for your seat for as little as $5.50 - $200K Guaranteed No Limit Tournament.

Designed with the assistance of the best poker players in the world - Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke – UltimateBet provides the best poker betting games available on the net. Players can download the free poker software, play in free ring games and tournaments and get tips from these pros to learn the sport or to enhance their playing strategy. UltimateBet currently has over 2 million registered players.

World Series of Poker kicks off with $10K event

It seems it was yesterday that Jerry Yang was celebrating his 2007 World Series of Poker main event title. It feels like it was last night that I was busting out of the 2006 WSOP main event. Sorry, some of those hands just haunt me in my sleep.

But it is time for poker’s main attraction — the WSOP — again. And while the number of main event entrants is anybody’s guess, this year’s World Series already is guaranteed to be the longest in history.

It starts today with the $10,000 buy-in pot-limit hold’em world championship and ends in November with the final stages of the main event final table.

Usually, it’s the casino employees event that kicks off the WSOP, so it’s refreshing see the World Series starting in style this year with one of the 12 world championship events. In all, Caesar’s Entertainment will be handing out 55 WSOP bracelets again this year at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

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Comments (0) May 30 2008

World Series of Poker

Last May, Jerry Yang was just a 39-year-old social worker from Temecula with six kids, a hefty mortgage and a wife who worked at night to make ends meet. Poker was a recently acquired, TV-inspired hobby he indulged in at the nearby Pechanga Casino.

But as this year’s 55-event, six-week World Series of Poker season kicks off Friday, Yang is a millionaire who is gunning to defend his title as 2007 winner of the $10,000 World Championship No-Limit Texas Hold ‘Em, a.k.a. the Main Event.

The promise embedded in Yang’s story is precisely why Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack believes more than 30,000 people will play and why more than 100,000 people will come to the Rio All-Suites Hotel-Casino just to watch for free.

“You can’t buy your way onto an NBA court, but you can buy your way into the World Series of Poker and walk away as a world champion,” Pollack said.

Indeed, anyone can play in the events, which have entry fees from $1,000 to $50,000. Some don’t even have to; Yang won his Main Event entry in a satellite tournament. That cost $225; in two weeks in July he outlasted 6,358 players to win $8.25 million.

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Absolute Buddy

Online casino operator Absolute Poker has developed new software designed to make playing friends online a snap. Absolute Buddy allows players to locate both offline friends and familiar opponents online.

By placing the names of online competitors into the Absolute Buddy program, gamblers can detect if the players are online, and if so, where.

If a player is currently signed in, his name will be highlighted in bold. A triangle next to the name signifies that the player is currently seated at a table. Single-clicking on the triangle reveals the name of the table; double-clicking puts the gambler at the table with the player he sought.

Players can plan to play against each other, and easily find a table to share.

The software is designed to be similar to online instant messaging services, such as Goggle Chat and AIM. This assures gamblers of ease of use and comfort.

Not only can players seek out friends, the device is useful in finding both opponents that have been easy prey and those that one wants revenge upon for a bad beat.

Vegas Luck Hits UltimateBet as Online Poker Player Cashes in on $546,253.86 Bad Beat Jackpot

56-year-old online poker player from Florida wins $177,532.51 with losing hand

A little Vegas luck was definitely on one online poker player’s side Tuesday morning. A Texas Hold’em player with the moniker “joeyvegas0711” popped UltimateBet’s latest Bad Beat Jackpot, which had been sitting at a staggering $546,253.86.

The jackpot exploded at 10:38am on May 27th when joeyvegas0711 turned over an assumingly unbeatable four queens. But everything changed the moment babybaby16 flipped over a queen-high straight flush and swept the $35.44 pot in his direction.

For his losing hand, joeyvegas0711 took home $177,532.51 of the $546,253.86 Bad Beat Jackpot. BabyBaby16 added an additional $88,766.25 to his $35.44 pot and 270 other players shared another $88,766.25.

Bad Beat Jackpot is just like traditional Texas Hold’em poker with an added jackpot component. In addition to rake, $0.50 is collected from qualifying poker hands and placed into a constantly growing pot until someone hits the jackpot.
When a player loses a hand with four 8s or anything better, 65% of the jackpot is divided among Bad Beat Jackpot players (25% remains in the pot for the next jackpot and 10% is dedicated towards administrative fees). All players seated at a Bad Beat Jackpot table featuring the same limit and game type as where the bad beat occurred also win a piece of the jackpot.
Full details on UltimateBet’s Bad Beat Jackpot game can be found at www.ultimatebet.com .

PurePlay to Award Highest Number of Seats to Poker’s Main Event

PurePlay, the largest U.S. compliant play-for-cash online poker site, announced today that it will be extending its 2008 World Series of Poker* seat giveaway through the month of June, with hundreds of World Series qualifiers running every day. PurePlay, the U.S. market leader, will be giving away the largest number of Main Event seats among all U.S. based poker sites.

San Fransisco, CA (PRunderground) May 29, 2008 – PurePlay, the largest U.S. compliant play-for-cash online poker site, announced today that it will be extending its 2008 World Series of Poker* seat giveaway through the month of June, with hundreds of World Series qualifiers running every day. PurePlay, the U.S. market leader, will be giving away the largest number of Main Event seats among all U.S. based poker sites.

PurePlay’s most recent winner is Donald Wilson of Sylvan Lake, Alberta, Canada. Said Wilson, “PurePlay’s offer of cash prizes without risking my own money has always been attractive, and they’re the reason I’ve been an enthusiastic regular on their site. Without risking a dime of my own money, my dream of winning a seat to the WSOP* Main Event came true. Who knows, if I play my cards right I could walk away with millions.”

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Blackjack Pays Out Most in Bodog’s Online Casino

The biggest payday yesterday in Bodog’s online casino came from Blackjack. (Bodog Beat Image)

Congratulations to Matthew E. of TX for being yesterday’s biggest Bodog casino winner with $19,296 from Blackjack! The other top nine winners are as follows:

* Robert G. of CA came in second and apparently also know how to play Blackjack. He won $7,840.
* Steven H. of PA rolled the bones and made $6,793 from Craps.
* Jimmy W. of MD was yet another big Blackjack winner with $6,289.
* David B. of FL made two big scores yesterday. One from the Realm of Riches slot for $5,737 and one from Tri-Card Poker for $4,180. Way to diversify David!
* Joan L. of NY nabbed a piece of the Aztecs Treasure slot for $5,249.
* Walter S. of MO played one of our favorite games, Let em Ride, and won $4,389.
* Barbara W. of GA laughed it up after winning $4,115 from Joker Poker.
* And finally, Renee W. of MA took a dip in the Crystal Waters slot and swam away with $4,020.

Bodog’s online casino has dozens of great casino games including the ever popular, and apparently quite lucrative, game of Blackjack.

Learn to count cards MIT style here: Card Counting

Comments (3) May 29 2008

Huge Player Interest in Titan Poker’s European Championship Tournament Series

Titan Poker, the largest online poker room on the iPoker Network, has seen unprecedented player interest in its 10-day European Championship of Online Poker (ECOOP) tournament series. The ECOOP series staged by Titan Poker guarantees $3,600,000 in prizes, but the large number of online poker players participating in the tournaments has driven up the prize pools even higher.
The ECOOP II series kicked off on May 23rd with a No Limit Hold’em event that drew 1,291 players. The following night was dedicated to Pot Limit Omaha Poker players, with a tournament that attracted 576 and awarded more than $100,000 in prizes.

The third ECOOP II tournament awarded $516,300 in prizes to the winning online poker players among the 1,721 who participated in the event. This was higher than the half a million dollars guaranteed in prizes.

The fourth ECOOP II tournament, once again devoted to Pot Limit Omaha players, awarded $165,000 in prizes.

The ECOOP II tournament series continues at Titan Poker until June 1st, when it culminates with a tournament finale with $1,500,000 in guaranteed prizes.

Titan Poker players are able to buy-in directly to each of the ECOOP II events or win their seats at online daily qualifying tournaments, which start at just $2 + $0.20.

This is the second European Championship of Online Poker staged by Titan Poker. The first ECOOP series was staged in December 2007 and exceeded expectations by awarding more than $2,500,000 in prizes.

Gamma Labs to Boost Testosterone At World Series of Poker In Las Vegas

A New York company says Testosterone
is just the lucky charm competitive poker players need at the card table. Casino giant Harrah’s Entertainment signed an agreement with West Babylon’s
Gamma Labs, maker of the boosting testosterone pill, to participate as a 2008 World Series of Poker sponsor in Las Vegas. The tournament takes place
at the Rio(R) All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas from May 30 through July 14.

Gamma Labs will highlight their newly released testosterone booster product, Gamma-O Plus Pomegranate, as an official sponsor of the WSOP. Gamma-O Plus Pomegranate contains Gamma-Oryzanol, an extract from rice bran oil which encourages the body to produce more testosterone, and pomegranate extract which has been shown to dramatically decrease the risk of prostate cancer. Gamma-O increases mental acuity, focus, and balance - precisely the skills that are needed to excel at the challenging game of poker.

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MansionPoker launches WSOP Mania poker tournaments

MansionPoker has announced the addition of WSOP Mania poker tournaments which provide members with further chances to win a coveted seat into the Mansion WSOP Mania Super Satellite tournament - worth $320 each.
The latest scheduled tournaments at MansionPoker.com to award guaranteed tickets into the Mansion WSOP Mania Super Satellite include the $1 + $0.10 Turbo Feeder tournaments
held daily at 18:30 and 21:30 BST, and the $10 + $1 Mansion WSOP Mania Daily Final; both of which award 3 Super Satellite tickets guaranteed. The daily Midnight Madness event
also provides another opportunity to win a seat into the Super Satellite of the year.

The Mansion WSOP Mania Super Satellite is one of the most exciting online poker tournaments of the year which takes place on Sunday June 15 2008 at 19:00 BST, with a
buy in of $300 + $20 and a guaranteed prize pool of 20 Packages - each worth an astounding $16,000.

Every package awards winning players at MansionPoker to take a seat at the world’s greatest Poker event: the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Based in Las Vegas, Nevada,
winners will be lucky enough to pit their poker wits against other enthusiasts and top professionals such as last year’s winner Jerry Yang and MansionPoker.com’s very own Marc Goodwin.

Unlike other online poker rooms, MansionPoker has ensured that their seats are guaranteed. The company looks forward to sending some of their quality players to join in the prestigious event and have a shot at the prize money as well as the kudos.

New Poker Game Introduced to Las Vegas

Royal Hold ‘em

A new type of Texas Hold’em poker has been given the green light by the Nevada Gaming Commission, and will soon be seen at the tables in Las Vegas.

Royal Hold’em puts a new spin on the classic game of poker. Following the same rules as Texas Hold’em, the main and significant difference is that Royal Hold’em is played with just 20 cards in the deck. Only cards of value 10 and above - the face cards - are used. WIth just 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace in the game, all the hands dealt have potential.

The new structure of the game means that most hands are played to the flop and there’s a much higher chance of getting a Royal Flush. The game is fast-paced and action-packed.

Another game currently in the pipeline is No River Hold’em, played with up to 10 players. Each player is dealt three hole cards, instead of the usual two, and the other main difference is that there is no river card dealt. The flop contains just two community cards.

Poker has a huge following around the world, both online and offline, and the appearance of new variations shows that the poker world is booming. The addition of new poker games is a great development and only serves to highten the excitement of this popular game.

Seminole Hard Rock Casino To Hold $3,000 Charity Poker Tourney

Poker is growing in popularity. The bigger it gets, combined with its growth within an area, dictate how much casinos will be able to charge for high end tournaments. In Florida, the casino gambling expansion has brought out some of the biggest gamblers.

This weekend, the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida, will be holding the biggest poker tournament ever in the state of Florida. The event is a $3,000 buy-in Texas Hold’em tourney.

First prize for the tournament could top the $125,000 mark. That will depend on the amount of interest the tournament sparks. The payouts will be based on the amount of entries.

$600 of each entry is going to the house. That is a particularly high number. In other ares where these types of tournaments are run, the house takes anywhere from three to eight percent. The $600 is twenty percent of the entry fee.

The tribe claims that this number is high due to the amount that must be paid to charity. Seventy percent has to go to charity when running a tournament such as this. There are 210 seats available for the tourney.

Proceeds from the event are going to the Miami Beach Health Foundation. The high fees are not a problem for most gamblers since the money is going to a good cause.

“I would mind if the casino was keeping all the money, but if it is going to charity, who cares. $125,000 is still a nice payout for a tournament win,” said Bill Triscol, a South Florida resident who is planning on playing in the tournament.

The Hard Rock is hoping this is just the beginning of the big time tournaments. They are planning on bringing a World Poker Tour event to the Hard Rock in the future.

Binion’s Gambling Hall to Host Second Annual Binions Poker Classic

Binion’s used to be the absolute center of the poker world back when poker wasn’t the international phenomenon that it is now, the Binion family actually ran Binion’s Horseshoe, as it was called back then, and the World Series of Poker was held there every year all the way through 2005. Nowadays, the WSOP is a multi-million dollar operation hosted at the Rio and Binion’s is left scrambling to grab some of the summer poker attention focused on Las Vegas.

To that effort, last year Binion’s introduced the Binion’s Poker Classic, a summer poker tournament series designed to attract players who don’t have quite the bankroll to play the WSOP. Unfortunately, they are also now competing in this space with the Venetian Deep Stack, The Grand Poker Series at the Golden Nugget, the 2008 Orleans Poker Classic and, to some extent, the Bellagio Cup and it’s WPT championship event. Needless to say, the summer poker schedule in Las Vegas is packed, but Binion’s distinguishes itself with history and the Poker Hall of Fame, giving players the chance to toss some cards under the watchful gaze of some of poker’s greatest legends.

Now in its second year, the Binion’s Poker Classic gets underway today with the $100 Casino Employees tournament and wraps up on July 7 when the $2,000 Championship Event kicks off. During this five-week span there will be 43 events covering a multitude of buy-ins and versions of poker. Satellites will be running regularly at Binion’s for the larger buy-in events.

Comments (0) May 28 2008

Poker machine king Bruce Mathieson wins

BILLIONAIRE pokies king Bruce Mathieson is bracing for the loss of up to 2000 machines under a Brumby Government industry crackdown.

But a decision to hand pokies venues a greater share of profits means he will still become even richer.

Gaming Minister Tony Robinson has revealed the Government is investigating laws to prevent Mr Mathieson from owning or managing more than 35 per cent — or 4813 — of the state’s pub pokies beyond 2012.

The powerful hotel baron, who now controls 6768 machines in partnership with supermarket giant Woolworths, will also be stopped from owning, managing or associating himself with pokies in sporting and community clubs.

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Car Salesman Bests Poker Pros to Win World Series of Golf

In a unique event that combines the wagering format of Texas Hold’em poker with the skill of golf, Andrew “AJ” Johnson, a 36-year-old car salesman from Davison, Michigan, bested a field of 80 amateur golfers which included several of the world’s greatest poker players, to win the second annual World Series of Golf and its $250,000 top prize.

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Poker Players Alliance Launches New Website, More Member Benefits

In a press release this week, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) announced a slate of new membership benefits as well as a new and enhanced website, both of which are designed to provide the over one million PPA members with greater membership benefits. As part of the launch, PPA is holding a drawing for a fully paid $10,000 buy-in for a seat at the Main Event at the 2008 World Series of Poker.

“The PPA has entered into the top tier of advocacy organizations, and we have only our members to thank. As such, we are constantly looking for ways to increase the value of a PPA membership,” said former Senator Alfonse D’Amato, chairman of the PPA. “I am excited about the opportunities our new website and enhanced membership benefits offer to our members as we continue the fight to protect poker players’ rights.”

PPA reports that their new website is designed to provide a more interactive and user friendly experience to PPA members. With enhanced forums and individual blogs written by each of PPA’s State Directors, members will be able to communicate with each other and find out the latest poker news in their state. This will also be a great resource for PPA’s State Directors as they organize members on the ground in their state to take action in support of poker.

The many benefits of the full annual $20 PPA membership- including access to all information, resources and tools on the PPA website (including action alerts at local, state and federal levels), and use of PPA’ Litigation Support Network- are also expanding. Members will now have the right to vote for the at large member of the PPA board of directors and receive a custom collector’s edition PPA poker chip.

PPA commented how pleased they are to partner with OneBigPlanet to provide full PPA members with enrollment in an online royalty rewards program. This program will offer PPA members discounts of up to 70 percent on purchases from select online merchants.

As an added bonus, every new, dues-paying member that signs up to join PPA before June 10, 2008 and who makes one purchase through OneBigPlanet will be automatically enrolled in the WSOP Main Event Seat contest (conditions apply). For more information on the contest, please visit: http://www.pokerplayersalliance.org/wsop2008.

For more information or to join PPA, visit www.pokerplayersalliance.org.

South Africa Approves Online Poker, Internet Gambling Regulation Bill

(Reuters) - South Africa’s parliament approved a new Internet gambling law to regulate an industry plagued by crime and vulnerable to money laundering and terrorism financing, parliamentary papers showed on Monday.

A memorandum attached to the National Gambling Amendment Bill said the interactive gambling industry in Africa’s biggest economy was currently unregulated and “generally plagued” by crime.

“This situation has resulted in a considerable loss of revenue to the national fiscus and compromises the country’s reputation as a responsible global citizen,” it said.

The new bill aims to address the negative socio-economic effects associated with gambling and deals specifically with issues of problem gambling, player protection, licensing, taxation and advertising.

Every online player would need to be registered with a licensed interactive gambling provider and submit an affidavit to ensure they were older than 18 years.

“The purpose of this Act is to ensure that all gambling activities are conducted responsibly, fairly and honestly (and to) protect minors and other vulnerable persons from the negative effects of gambling,” it said.

The bill also allowed for an electronic monitoring system to help root out potentially addictive behavior and restrict credit extensions to players.

President Thabo Mbeki must still sign the bill into law before it comes into effect.

The United States, a major market for website punters, recently banned online gambling, hitting revenues at sites offering a variety of games, including blackjack and roulette.

According to South Africa’s National Gambling Board, which will enforce the country’s new laws, revenues across all forms of gambling, excluding Internet, increased to 13.5 billion rand ($1.8 billion)in 2006/07 from 6.2 billion rand in 2001/02.

WPA Upgrades Poker Tournament Rules; Card Rooms Around the World are Invited to Comment

Today the World Poker Association announced completion of its recommended 2008 Tournament Rules, for use in poker tournament competition around the world. The New Rules will be distributed to players at the WPA Mega Satellite, which is the opening event on the schedule of the 2008 World Series of Poker - at noon, May 29th at the Rio All Suites Hotel in Las Vegas. WPA Chairman Wendeen H. Eolis explains, “The WPA requires all of its members to adhere to a stringent Code of Ethics that is designed to promulgate professionalism and the highest standards of sportsmanship. The new WPA Tournament Rules work hand and hand with this mission.”

Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) May 21, 2008 — Today the World Poker Association announced completion of its recommended 2008 Tournament Rules, for use in poker tournament competition around the world. The New Rules will be distributed to players at the WPA Mega Satellite, which is the opening event on the schedule of the 2008 World Series of Poker - at noon, May 29th at the Rio All Suites Hotel in Las Vegas.

Those new rules will be presented at the WPA’s Annual Meeting May 28th, following which will be a WPA seminar led by Mike Caro and then a WPA cocktail party which is open to the press as well as members and their guests. The recommended Rules will also be immediately available to players competing in the WPA tournament, May 29th.

With a $500 buy-in, the Mega Satellite at the WSOP includes seats for the WSOP Main Event (as per the prize pool) as well as a separate sponsorship entry into the WSOP Ladies Championship as a member of the Queens of Heart Team for the lady member of the WPA who finishes in highest position in the Mega Satellite. The Queens of Heart prize was arranged by Queens of Heart team founder Lisa Tenner, renowned marketing and branding expert and a member of the WPA
More WPA Sanctioned Mega Satellites on the Horizon

The Mega Satellite is part of a long term effort by the WPA to expand its reach in the poker world, and to provide incentives for its growing membership base. WPA Chairman Wendeen H. Eolis says, “The Mega Satellite that is taking place at the WSOP will serve as the prototype for more WPA-sanctioned events. She adds, Mega Satellites provide an opportunity for the WPA to connect with casinos around the world bringing WPA members to their properties while attracting new WPA members from the casino’s local community of players who may not be active tournament circuit players,”

Earlier this spring the WPA finalized arrangements for the WPA Mega Satellite under the auspices of the WSOP, noting it would coincide with the Association’s planned release of new WPA Tournament Rules. Some of the new WPA Tournament Rules will be incorporated in the 2008 WPA Mega Satellite at the WSOP with a view toward additional collaboration between the WPA and WSOP in the future. The WSOP has agreed to operate the tournament with nine-handed tables, and will adopt a strict prohibition against splashing the pot.

The WPA requires all of its members to adhere to a stringent Code of Ethics that is designed to promulgate professionalism and the highest standards of sportsmanship. “The new WPA Tournament Rules work hand and hand with this mission,” says Eolis, citing the WPA’s request to WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel to fully enforce the Rio’s casino-wide ban against foul and obscene language.

WPA Tournament Rules Committee Chair, Thomas Kremser, oversaw more than 100 hours of committee and Board of Directors discussions to reach consensus on the newly published rules. Kremser says, “The WPA Tournament Rules reflect a good balance between the needs of tournament personnel and the needs of players to insure fairness and consistency.”

Discussing the year long WPA deliberations on Rules, Eolis continues, “We have built on the substantial work of the Tournament Directors Association and have moved down the path of unifying and standardizing tournament rules for competitions around the world.”

Toward this end, the WPA is sending the new WPA Tournament Rules to casinos and public card rooms around the world seeking endorsement of its work and inviting card room personnel worldwide as well as players in the WPA Mega Satellite, May 29th, to offer feedback to the recommended WPA Rules that will be distributed when they take their seats.

The Tournament Rules are part of the WPA’s mission to unite world poker entities by unifying standards of play.

www.wpapoker.org

Lee Watkinson and FullTilt Pros Host FullTiltPoker.com Save Captive Chimps Charity Poker Tournament

LAS VEGAS, NV–(Marketwire - May 21, 2008) - On Sunday, May 25, at 9:00 pm EDT, FullTilt team member Lee Watkinson will host the “Save Captive Chimps” Charity Poker Tournament on FullTiltPoker.com. The $5 + $5 no-limit hold’em event will benefit the Cortland Brandenberg Foundation in their effort to rescue chimpanzees. The animal rescue foundation is in desperate need of immediate funding and Watkinson is encouraging everyone to join him in the “Save Captive Chimps” fundraising effort.

For more information or to register for the event, visit http://www.greasiewheels.com or FullTiltPoker.com. New members should download the free software and enter referral code “ANIMALLOVERS” to ensure animal shelters receive continued funding. To register, look for the “May 25 21:00 Hold’em NL $5 + $5″ tournament listed in red and located in the “tournaments” tab of the FullTiltPoker.com online lobby. The cost is $10 to enter. Half of the entry will benefit the Cortland Brandenberg Foundation, with a portion of the proceeds going towards the establishment of a new sanctuary slated to open in June in Watkinson’s home state of Washington. The other half of the entry will be awarded to participants who place in the money, and the winner of the “Save Captive Chimps” tournament will receive the first place prize money and a Curtis & Co. watch.

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Comments (2) May 22 2008

Following on from the outstanding response to the first European Championship of Online Poker in December 2007 Titan Poker have announced ECOOP II!

The second European Championship of Online Poker begins on the 23rd of May with guarantees of $3.6 Million this series promises to be one of the most exciting events on the online poker calendar. The quality structures will entice skilled players who will be provided with ten days of fantastic poker.

The ECOOP II Schedule is as follows :

DAY ONE - Friday May 23 - ECOOP NL Hold’em $200+$15, $250,000 Guaranteed
DAY TWO - Saturday May 24 - ECOOP PLO Hi-Lo R/A $100+$9, $100,000 Guaranteed
DAY THREE - Sunday May 25 - ECOOP NL Hold’em $300+$20, $500,000 Guaranteed
DAY FOUR - Monday May 26 - ECOOP PLO Rebuy $100+$9, $150,000 Guaranteed
DAY FIVE - Tuesday May 27 - ECOOP NL Hold’em $750+$50, $300,000 Guaranteed
DAY SIX - Wednesday May 28 - ECOOP NL Hold’em 6 Max $200+$15, $200,000 Guaranteed
DAY SEVEN - Thursday May 29 - ECOOP Limit Hold’em $200+$15, $100,000 Guaranteed
DAY EIGHT - Friday May 30 - ECOOP NL Hold’em Rebuy $100+$9, $300,000 Guaranteed
DAY NINE - Saturday May 31 - ECOOP PL Omaha $250+$18, $150,000 Guaranteed
DAY TEN - Sunday June 01 - ECOOP MAIN EVENT NL Hold’em $1,000+$60, $1,500,000 Guaranteed
MVP FREEROLL - Wednesday June 04 - ECOOP MVP Freeroll NL Hold’em $50,000

As well as having the chance to win a share of a MASSIVE $3.6 MILLION, players can also win a seat in a $50,000 Freeroll! The top 100 players on the special ECOOP II leaderboard will be eligible to play in this Freeroll.

All top 100 players will be eligible to play in the $50,000 GP Freeroll, which will be staged 72 hours after the Main Event.

If your bankroll isn’t big enough for those events you can win a seat in one of Titan Poker’s qualifying satellites. The chance is there for a big payday for a small outlay!

FREE £20 BET

Poker, heart to heart

Fans rush to get into game that even professionals say is hard on health

THIS MAY NOT COME as a complete surprise, but it turns out that playing poker is not all that good for your heath.

Slot machines? Same thing.

Dave Scharf of Saskatoon has been playing poker “seriously or semi-professionally” for about 12 years and is the author of Winning at Poker: Essential Hints and Tips.

He said the poker players we see on TV — heavy, inert — are pretty typical.

“Gaming and the lifestyle of too much booze, high-fat food and no exercise — those two seem to have a hugely overlapping demographic,” Scharf said during a visit to Halifax.

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Poker Player Bernard Lee Celebrating One-Year on Rounders Radio

Professional poker player, media personality and poker instructor Bernard Lee will celebrate the one-year anniversary of The Bernard Lee Poker Show on 1510 AM The Zone in Massachusetts with a slate of special guests throughout the month starting with May 6, the day the show premiers on Rounders Radio, the largest streaming poker radio station in the world.

Lee, a Wayland resident, catapulted into the poker spotlight after he finished 13th in the 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and became the top New England finisher. Lee has won more than $1.3 million and two titles on the tournament circuit, been named an instructor for the well-known World Poker Tour (WPT) Boot Camp, as well as become a poker commentator and poker columnist for the Boston Herald and ESPN.com. Lee will release in June his first book, The Final Table, Volume I, a compilation of his Sunday Boston Herald poker columns of the same name.

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Play Texas Hold’em. Get up to $100 Free with First Cash Deposit.
Skill-based games are U.S. legal. DuplicatePoker.com

21-Year-Old Tyler Smith First Live Poker Tournament

Tyler Smith
Tyler Smith

New Orleans, LA – The thirteenth event on the 2008 Bayou Poker Challenge schedule was completed today as Tyler Smith won the $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em competition. The tournament was hosted by the Harrahs New Orleans Casino and Resort. First place paid $88,154. Smith was also presented with a gold ring, presented to all World Series of Poker Circuit winners here in New Orleans.

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Play Texas Hold’em. Get up to $100 Free with First Cash Deposit.
Skill-based games are U.S. legal. DuplicatePoker.com

Ashland poker club shut down

A state agency’s ruling that a poker club’s activities violated state law led to the shutdown of the gaming business.

The Oregon Department of Justice’s Charitable Gaming Unit said that some membership dues and fees charged by The Downtown Poker Club were outside the rules established for social gaming clubs. Following that ruling, the Ashland Elk’s Lodge, which owns the building on Will Dodge Way, declined to renew the poker club’s lease.

The club was funded by each member paying nightly table fees of $20, which were collected by taking a small percentage of each pot played, also known as the “rake.” Any money collected in excess of $20 per player was placed in a player’s fund to be redistributed among the players through parties and refreshments.

Because the club was not making a profit from these fees, and only paying for rent, expenses and improvements, Russell Bjerke, co-owner of the Downtown Poker Club, had previously said he felt the practice was legal.

The state disagreed.

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Play Texas Hold’em. Get up to $100 Free with First Cash Deposit.
Skill-based games are U.S. legal. DuplicatePoker.com

FTOPS VIII Main Event; Online Poker Tourney Ends, Paying Over $15mil

The long-anticipated Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS VIII) has finally come to an end at Full Tilt Poker, the world’s second largest online poker room. When all was said and done, FTOPS VIII - originally guaranteeing $10 million throughout the 24-tournament series - paid out a whopping grand total of $15,378,400 to its combined winners.

Yesterday, the FTOPS VIII Main Event was played out, bringing about the end of Full Tilt Poker’s most lucrative online poker event. But before we get into the details of the big finale, let’s take a brief glimpse into the results of Sunday’s first tournament, Event #23.

FTOPS VIII – Event #23
The afternoon began with a $240 + $16 NL Hold’em Knockout, with 6-max re-buys and a guaranteed prize pool of $500,000, hosted by Full Tilt Pro Roland de Wolfe. The turn-out became a massive field of 3,149 players, the third largest throughout FTOPS VIII thus far, raising the guaranteed value to $629,800.

Only one of Full Tilt Poker red-tagged players finished in the enormous bubble that paid the top 348 positions. David Pham snagged a 235th place finish, collecting $346.39; enough to cover the buy-in fee and purchase a nice dinner for two – maybe even take in a movie.

The final table came down to heads-up play between “elheroe” and “Panamatony”. In the end, it was “elheroe” taking the 1st place prize of $124,020.22, along with his brand new FTOPS VIII jacket and custom gold avatar. “Panamatony” earned $78,221.16 for the second place finish.

Play Texas Hold’em. Get up to $100 Free with First Cash Deposit.
Skill-based games are U.S. legal. DuplicatePoker.com

Comments (0) May 20 2008

Huge settlement a poker in the eye for Aristocrat

POKER machine maker Aristocrat Leisure is believed to have agreed to pay between $150 million and $170 million to settle a landmark class action brought by shareholders, who argued the company six years ago failed to keep the market fully informed.

The payout, which will be confidential until it is revealed to the Federal Court next month, will be the largest by an Australian company to its investors.

The settlement came after the market closed yesterday, and at the eleventh hour of the case, as Federal Court judge Margaret Stone was nearing a decision in the long-running and bitterly fought legal action.

If it is approved by Justice Stone at a hearing in about six weeks, it is believed the payout will largely be funded by Aristocrat’s insurers.

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“Panicked” Stays Calm, Wins Bodog Sunday $100k Online Poker Tourney

Online poker player “Panicked” took home the $23,600 first-place prize last night in Bodog’s $100,000 Guaranteed online poker tournament. (Bodog Beat Image)

Once again, a horde of online poker players showed up in the Bodog Poker room last night to battle it out for one of the biggest guranteed pots in online poker in the Sunday $100,000 Guaranteed online poker tournament. After the 708-player field was whittled down, the final table revealed several newcomers and multiple $100k final tabler “JohnnyGstaks.” Once the melee had settled though, it was “Panicked” who managed to do the opposite of his screen name and stay calm and patient to win the $23,600 first-place prize.

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Meskwaki Poker Tables Open Soon To Teens

Gamblers under age 21 will soon be able allowed to place poker bets at the Meskwaki casino.

The Meskwaki tribal council approved the change, which would allow 18 to 20-year-olds in poker games.

The change takes effect on June 1 at 12:01 a.m.

The casino has 15 poker tables and will not have a financial stake in the poker games but hopes the games will attract more customers to the casino.

Players under 21 will be required to wear a security bracelet.

Viva Las Vegas at Sky Poker

Sky Poker is giving up to ten players the opportunity of a lifetime with their Viva Las Vegas promotion.

To give yourself a chance of winning one of Sky Poker’s $17,000 packages all you need to do is log in on a Wednesday night and qualify in one of the many different satellites on offer.

Each $17,000 package includes the following -
* Flights for 2 people
* 15 nights hotel stay in the heart of Las Vegas whilst the World Series of Poker 2008 Main Event takes place
* $10,000 Dollars to buy your way into the WSOP 2008 Main Event
* $2,000 spending money!

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Turning Stone Resort & Casino Poker Boss Jason DiBenedetto

Turning Stone Resort & Casino poker boss Jason DiBenedetto may have a cure for those under 21 blues, the I’m-too young blahs among poker buffs.

It’s the fact a player only has to be 18 to play in the poker room at the mid-state New York resort owned by the Oneida Indian Nation near Syracuse.

“This for us is huge,” he says, noting that there is not another casino for about 200 miles in any direction. “We get a lot of the players that don’t have anywhere else to go because of the age factor, except to the Internet.”

For some of the Turning Stone’s bigger events, players come to the casino’s poker room from all over the country, even the world.

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European Poker Tour (EPT) 4 Draws to a Close

The fourth season of the European Poker Tour is now over and a North American has won the Grand Final for the third year in a row. In 2006 19-year-old Jeff Williams triumphed over a field of 298 players to take down the first prize of 900,000 Euros. Last year the numbers dramatically increased to 706 and it was Gavin Griffin who walked away with the trophy and a prize of 1.8 million Euros.

This year the numbers were up again and online qualifier Glen Chorny, a 22-year-old from Canada, outlasted 841 other players to pocket the 2 million Euros first prize. Glen finished thirteenth in the Pokerstars.com Caribbean adventure earlier in the year and has been playing online professionally since January. He went into the eight-man final as chip leader, and with just three players left he held a massive advantage, which left Hungarian Denes Kalo and Maxime Villemure (another Canadian) to fight it out for second place.

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Online Poker Cheater Mizzi is Sorry & Sponsored

If the name Sorel Mizzi rings a bell, it could be due to his online poker successes over the last several years as “Imper1um.” Or the name might sound familiar because of a cheating scandal that overshadowed his career in the late months of 2007.

Mizzi and former managing editor of Bluff Magazine Chris Vaughn were accused of seat selling, which involved Vaughn going deep in a Full Tilt tournament, then selling his seat to Mizzi who went on to win it for nearly $200,000. After the players’ initial denials of any wrongdoing, Full Tilt investigated, disqualified the winner, and banned both players from the site. Subsequently, Mizzi and Vaughn admitted to the cheating and apologized. On February 20, 2008, Betfair Poker, part of a betting exchange network located in the United Kingdom, announced that 21-year old Mizzi was the newest member of Team Betfair, a sponsored team of players that includes 2008 World Series of Poker Europe champion Annette Obrestad. Betfair does not accept U.S. players on its site and pegged the signing of Mizzi, not even six months after he admitted to cheating in an online tournament, as a proud accomplishment.

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America Online is offering six free WSOP seats

Internet provider America Online announced that it will be providing six seats to the World Series of Poker main event through online freerolls and games.com.

The freeroll poker tournaments will continue through June 15, with six lucky players going to Las Vegas in July.

According to online-casinos.com:

The AOL tournament will run over the course of six weeks. Each week, players will participate in free daily qualifying tournaments to earn their way to a Sunday winner-takes-all tournament. The winners will receive an entry and travel accommodations from within the United States to the 2008 World Series of Poker No-Limit Texas Hold’em Championship slated to begin July 3, 2008 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Online Casino Pays Out Largest-Ever Win

SportingBet last week went the extra mile to congratulate winning player Mr K Vasileiadis for his win on a €27 (£21) slot machine that netted him €940,966 (£748,290).

The generous casino flew Mr Vasileiadis to London, along with five of his friends and family, to toast his winnings and of course receive them. After, the lucky group were taken to lunch.

“This is a huge win and I am delighted for Mr. Vasileiadis,” said Sportingbet’s CEO. “He is a loyal and valued customer and I am sure he will enjoy spending the money.”

SportingBet was among the first online gaming companies in the world, and remains one of the largest today. The website is used by over 30 countries and celebrates its 10th birthday this year.

Mr Vasileiadis said that although the winnings will make a pleasant difference to his life he has no plans to leave his job. However, his fiancé said that their wedding would now likely be bigger and sooner than planned.

Titan Poker’s Upcoming Events

Asian Poker Tour Super Sat
Monday, May 19, 2008 at 20:00 GMT+1
Buy-ins = $250 + $18
Satellites from $3 + $0.30
$6,000 Prize Package
Four packages guaranteed!
Here is your LAST CHANCE to play poker in the Far East in this exciting tournament!

ECOOP VIP Satellite
Titan Poker and TonyGPoker
Thursday, May 22, 2008 at 20:30 GMT+1
Open to VIP players (Gold and up) who generate 10,000 Points between May 15 and May 20.
2 winners will get entries to ALL ECOOP II events ($3420 value each)
VIP players - don’t miss your chance for a quick entry to all ECOOP action. Earn at least 10,000 Points by the end of Tuesday!

ECOOP II #1 $250,000
Friday, May 23, 2008 at 19:00 GMT+1
Buy-ins = $200 + $15
Satellites available
Hold’em No Limit
$250,000 in guaranteed prizes and an ECOOP II bracelet to the winner!
This is the first ECOOP II tournament - get into the action to win huge cash prizes!

New Players $2,000
Titan Poker and TonyGPoker
Tonight, May 23, 2008 at 20:00 GMT+1
Freeroll tournament to players who qualified during week of May 15-21.
Eligible players have been notified.

New Players $800
Titan Poker and TonyGPoker
Tonight, May 23, 2008 at 20:00 GMT+1
Freeroll tournament to players who qualified during week of May 15-21.
Eligible players have been notified.

ECOOP II #2 $100,000 R/A
Saturday, May 24, 2008 at 19:00 GMT+1
Buy-ins = $100 + $9
Satellites available
Pot Limit Omaha Hi Lo Rebuy
$100,000 in guaranteed prizes and an ECOOP II bracelet to the winner!
This is an exciting ECOOP II tournament - get into the action to win huge cash prizes!

WSOP Side Events Super Sat
Saturday, May 24, 2008, at 20:05 GMT+1
Buy-ins = $200 + $15
Satellites from $2.50 + $0.20
$6,500 Prize Package
Winner(s) will receive entry to two World Series of Poker No Limit Hold’em events in Las Vegas!

Find great action at Titan Poker

Comments (1) May 19 2008

French Couple Travels the World on Titan Poker’s Tab

Titan Poker, the largest poker room on the iPoker Network, funded skilled poker duo Bruno Peyrou and Marise Massabo, from Marseille, France, to fly to Madrid for the Eurocity Poker Open Madrid this May. This is the third time that the couple has flown to a major live tournament thanks to their shared passion for Titan Poker’s online tournaments.

The French couple’s world poker tour began last May when Marise won a seat worth $14,000 to Pokerface 2007 in Las Vegas — and brought her husband along for moral support. A few months later, it was his turn to win them a vacation, with an $8,000 seat to the World Poker Showdown (WPS) Costa Rica in January 2008. This month, Bruno won them yet another exciting poker trip, with a $3,000 ticket to Titan Poker’s sponsored ECPT Madrid Open 2008.

The couple flew to Madrid for this elite tournament, which was staged from the 9th to the 12th of May at the Casino Gran Madrid.

Following their shared poker victories, Bruno said: “I’m very happy to find myself in this tournament in Madrid. Thanks to Titan Poker and a wink to everyone in customer service for all their help. I intend to enjoy myself to the max at this tournament, and… why not go with the wallet a little bit thicker so I can enjoy a few more of Titan Poker’s tournaments here and there.”

Titan Poker regularly rewards its players with seats to the world’s most well-known poker tournaments, such as the European Poker Tour and the Aussie Millions. Later this year, Titan Poker will be sending players to the World Series of Poker 2008 in Las Vegas, and the Asian Poker Tour in Manila. The popular poker room also frequently awards its online players with huge cash prizes. At the end of this month, the poker room will give away $3,600,000 in its second European Championship of Online Poker (ECOOP II).

A change to the World Series of Poker main event

The World Series of Poker, poker’s most prestigious event, will kick off in a few short weeks. The WSOP features world championships in various forms of the game, all leading up to the granddaddy of them all, the $10,000 buy-in Main Event.

This year, however, the Main Event will be just a little bit different.

Harrah’s, the operator of the WSOP, with input from the Players Advisory Council, decided to postpone the final table of the Main Event until November 9, 2008 – a delay of more than three months. That’s right; more than 7,000 players will start play on July 3 and battle down to the final nine on July 14 at which time play will come to a stop.

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World Series Of Poker Merchandise to be Broadly Distributed by XP Events

The World Series of Poker just announced it has reached a multi-year alliance with XP Events to broadly distribute WSOP-branded merchandise across multiple retail touch points, including a new WSOP-branded brick and mortar store in Las Vegas, an online shop, and retail kiosks.

Through this agreement, XP Events, a leading retail merchandise management and fulfillment house based in Denver Colorado, becomes the official branded-merchandise provider for the globally recognized World Series of Poker brand.

XP Events will manage the officially-licensed WSOP online store, officially-licensed retail outlets throughout Las Vegas during the May 30-July 14, 2008 tournament, and manage a new Official World Series of Poker retail store, coming soon.

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Strip Poker: IFC to Host Celeb Charity Tourney at Orleans

International Fighting Championship is Putting on the Event to Benefit the Caring Place

When most people hear about the International Fighting Championships, they might think of mixed-martial arts and fighters duking it out. But on May 25 at the Orleans, the gloves are coming off, and the only fight going on will be the fight against cancer.

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World Poker Association Hosts Conference

The World Poker Association is launching their first educational event for their members. It will be held at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, on May 28 -May 29, 2008, prior to the launch of the World Series of Poker tournament that takes place in Las Vegas in July. The conference will be moderated by Mike ‘The Mad Genius of Poker’ Caro, and is titled ‘63 Money Making Tips To Win A Bundle At The WSOP’.

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RECORD REVENUES FOR EVEREST POKER PARENT

With more real money players and soaring revenues, the Taiwan firm Gigamedia, which owns the Everest online poker company, delivered good news to investors this week in releasing its Q1 2008 results.

Gigamedia’s chief executive Arthur Wang re-emphasised the importance of the company’s deal with Harrah’s for high profile World Series of Poker sponsorship by the Everest brand, pointing out that the poker spectacular is beamed into 350 million homes through television coverage.

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PKR to Produce Advanced Poker Magazine for its Players

PKR announced it has signed a year-long deal with Dennis Publishing to produce a quarterly magazine aimed at advanced PKR poker players, with an inaugural issue coming June 2008.

It will be distributed free of charge to an international selection of PKR customers.

The name of the magazine has not been revealed yet. Dennis Publishing already publishes a range of gambling titles, including Inside Poker and Poker Player.

Tim Farthing, commercial director at Dennis, said: “Dennis Publishing has already established themselves as the world’s leading gambling publisher. This perfectly places (us) to bring PKR into the print spectrum as we have a long and successful working relationship with them.”

Simon Prodger, marketing director at PKR, added: “PKR has been a great success in the digital world, and we are pleased to offer our online players more content with this new print magazine. This partnership is a good opportunity to enhance the relationship our brand has already formed with our loyal players and to build on the huge success of our online output.”

Full Tilt Poker Awards Bounties for Busting its Team of Pros

Win Your Buy-in Back Up to $200 for Each Pro You Send to the Rail

Full Tilt Poker started offering its Knockout bounty tournaments recently, but the site has had prices on the heads of its red-named sponsored pros for quite some time. Players have a chance to win their buy-ins back in virtually any scheduled multitable tournament on Full Tilt through this ongoing promotion — which goes along quite nicely with the bragging rights.

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Danish Supreme Court Ruling Encourages Poker Players

After five months of worrying about the future of Danish poker, the game’s enthusiasts finally have received some good news. The Supreme Court in Denmark has decided to bring up the case where the question is: Should tournament poker in private clubs be legal in Denmark or not? The second highest legal body in Denmark, its Landsretten, decided to vote against legalisation, and after an appeal put together by Frederik Hostrup and the Danish Poker Federation, the Supreme Court is ready to handle the case.

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Poker’s Top Asian Pros Eye Top Plum at APT Manila

Manila, Philippines - The top professional poker players with Asian heritage are aiming for nothing less than the top prize at the upcoming Asian Poker Tour Philippine leg this coming May 27 to June 1.

Korean-born Steve Sung, Vietnam-native Quinn Do and Vietnamese-American Nam Le are all hoping to be the last man standing at the finals table of the 2008 Asian Poker Tour’s first leg to be held at the Dusit Thani Manila Hotel. The three poker pros of Asian-descent will duke it out with over 400 other pros for a chance to win the first prize chunk of the guaranteed prize pool of US$ 1 million.

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Comments (2) May 14 2008